Battle of Rotterdam (1805)
The '''Battle of Rotterdam '''was the decisive battle of the Franco-Batavian War, in which Marshal Guillaume Marie Anne Brune and 15,800 French troops defeated an army of 14,300 Dutch troops from two separate armies. Brune defeated the Dutch in a battle largely fought as an infantry melee battle with bayonets, at the cost of his service; he was injured. Dutch general Gerolt Valckenier was also killed in the battle, and the battle tipped in the favor of the French. Background When France took over Cleves-Mark from the Kingdom of Prussia, they established Josias I of Westphalia as a puppet monarch. However, the aggressive Batavian Republic attacked Westphalia, and France was forced to choose which ally to abandon; they would either be at war with the Batavian Republic or they would abandon their alliance with Westphalia. The French backed Westphalia, as Napoleon I refused to abandon his allies. The consequences were obvious; France's fleet off the coast of Portugal was destroyed by Admiral Jan Hendrik van Kinsberger, and Westphalia was overrun by the Dutch. Napoleon attempted to make peace but Stadtholder Jan Schimmelpenninck refused to do so and Napoleon had little more of a choice than to send an army against his former allies. Marechal Guillaume Marie Anne Brune was sent to crush the Dutch with a sizeable army of troops taken from the provinces of Picardy, Wallonia, and Paris. Originally, he was to take Cleves, but he headed to Amsterdam with his army. Believing that the Dutch force in Rotterdam would be an easy target, Brune assaulted Dagobert Bullens' 1,200 Dutch troops, using his sheer force of 15,800 troops to attack them. But these mrn were reinforced by Gerolt Valckenier's army of 13,100 troops from nearby Amsterdam, and the Batavian Republic's armies attacked the French. Although they were outnumbered, the Batavian troops were experienced line infantry troops, who also had two units of horse artillery. Brune's army, meanwhile, consisted of poorly-disciplined and unenthusiastic National Guard militiamen. He had to divide his attention between the stand-alone regiment of troops and the reinforcing Dutch army, so he decided to attack the larger force first. Battle The French had to march to form a straight line behind a hill near where the reinforcing Dutch army would arrive, and by the time they arrived, about a third of the Dutch army had arrived, mainly cavalry. Brune and his General Staff charged at Valckenier's General Staff, and in a fierce clash, Brune was wounded, and both staffs lost most of their men. Only one French officer fled, while the Dutch lost all but 6. By then the French infantry had moved up in a large horde, and they repelled Dutch cavalry charges with both volleys of musket fire and bayonets. The defeat of the Dutch was not easy, as both lost heavy amounts of men, and Valckenier was killed when he unwisely charged into the melee. The French National Guard drew up into a line to face the Dutch line infantry that was oncoming, as well as their cannon. Battle opened between the two lines in traditional formation, with the two armies firing volleys and reloading while facing each other. The French infantry held their ground, despite the death of their general, and their right flank met the Dutch left flank when they met in melee. The Dutch were routed, and the Dutch regiments who had not fought in melee routed under heavy fire from musketry. However, the Dutch army under Dagobert Bulens, consisting of three regiments, was still active, as were the cannons. The French army launched a bayonet charge and their left flank routed the Dutch troops while the right and center routed the horse artillery and the one infantry regiment guarding them. The rout of the Dutch army was the turning point of the Franco-Batavian War, as they had destroyed the only Dutch field army in the Netherlands. Aftermath What was left of the Dutch Army remained in Amsterdam, and the bloodied French, under the command of Brigadier Hyacinth Mouton, moved on Amsterdam, and they captured it after a short fight that cost the Dutch most of their men. Amsterdam was occupied and turned into the United Netherlands, which was a French vassal state. The Batavian Republic was still alive and now fighting a Dutch civil war, with the city of Cleves as their capital. The French army would have to take Cleves to end the war forever. Category:Battles